Does Size Really Matter to Boomer Men

My research and personal experience tells me that there is one part of every man for which size matters. It is something that men often obsess over and sometimes discuss with other men. Men often think if it’s bigger, it will attract women; this is especially true for older men who want to attract younger women. The bigger and bolder and more powerful, the better, if you know what I mean.

Almost every Boomer-age man I know wants to have a bigger … vehicle.

You thought I meant something else, didn’t you?

What we drive is often linked, in our own minds, to our self-esteem, our identity, our sexuality and attractiveness. We want a bigger car or truck with a bigger, more powerful engine and painted in a bright color. Sometimes the middle-age crisis car is a small sporty job, but it’s got a 400-horsepower engine. Maybe it’s an exotic sedan with a huge price tag. Maybe it’s a Hummer.

Where did this attitude come from? My guess is that it developed during the early Boomer muscle car era. Cars like the Pontiac GTO and the Mustang Shelby Cobra dominated the popular culture from the mid 1960s till the gasoline shortages of the early 70s. Of course there were cars with big engines in the 1950s too. Some were custom jobs but others could be purchased right on the showroom floor. During the early days of what we now know as NASCAR, some of the drivers would take the family car right to the track after church on Sunday and compete in regional stock car races. And, of course, Corvette envy spans the decades.

Some fifty-somethings I know have big vehicles. One drives a Cadillac, another has a 700-series BMW, a third drives an F150 pickup for work and a Suburban for pleasure. My ride is an Explorer with a V8 engine.

So what do Boomer men who think vehicle size matters do in today’s world of rapidly rising gas prices? That is my dilemma this month. My Explorer has outlived its usefulness but I can’t decide on its replacement. A few months ago, when gas prices were only $3.20, I was shopping for another 4-wheel drive SUV, like a Honda Pilot, which gets 22mpg highway vs. 18 for my Explorer. As I was pumping $3.69 per gallon gas this evening, the Honda CR-V ahead of me was looking pretty good. It gets close to 30 mph, but it has half the horsepower. And it looks so, well, uhh … small. In reality, a CR-V is only a few inches smaller than an Explorer, but some would say that, uhh, every inch counts.

Ninety percent of my driving consists of a solitary 85-mile a day round trip commute to work. I could probably do it in a Prius or a Mini Cooper. My sense of identity and attractiveness is not usually connected to my car; my previous two vehicles were station wagons, one of which I owned when my wife and I first met. But I just don’t like tiny cars. And I do like to be able to shop at Home Depot or Tractor Supply and throw my purchases in the back. You should have seen us trying to get stall mats into the trunk of a Taurus sedan a few years ago; we forgot we were driving that car and not my wagon that day.

I’ll keep you posted on my vehicle shopping adventure, and if you have a similar dilemma, please share the details.

My conclusion: size may or may not matter, but it is definitely a factor; and like many aging Boomers, I’m trying to accept the idea that quality often trumps quantity.